More Tea, GOP?
Their ideas are half-baked when they come out of the oven,
They’re tight-knit and insular, like a witch’s coven.
But the question remains,
After their recent policy gains —
Can the Tea Party Republicans actually govern?
Tag: Tea Party
Palin Issued Primary Threat to House Tea Partyists Just Hours Before Vote on Boehner Bill Was Postponed
“Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”
– Sarah Palin, issuing a veiled threat to tea-bagger freshmen in the House
– Sarah Palin, issuing a veiled threat to tea-bagger freshmen in the House
Sarah Palin sent a warning to freshman Republicans on Thursday not to forget the promises made to voters in 2010, adding her outsized voice to the flurry of last-minute arm-twisting before a key debt ceiling vote in the House.
In a post on her Facebook page from “proverbial politico flyover country,” the former Alaska governor reprinted a letter she sent to newly elected members last fall, emphasizing the need to “rein in out-of-control government spending” and “check the growth of spending on our entitlement programs.”
…The message does not include marching orders for the proposal offered by House Speaker John A. Boehner that is on the floor Thursday. But Palin has said recently she was not convinced that a fiscal doomsday was imminent if the debt ceiling was not raised by Aug. 2.
“We cannot default but we cannot afford to retreat right now either. Now is not the time to retreat, it’s the time to reload,” she said on Fox News Channel earlier this month.
In a loaded postscript to her Facebook post, Palin reminds the House freshmen: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”
Later this afternoon, Speaker Boehner called off the vote on his budget bill, a clear sign that he does not have the votes to pass it in the House. Think Progress has been tallying the votes:
Norwegian Right-Wing Anti-Islam Terrorist Cited Tea Party, Nazis
In fact, for American conservatives, especially members of the tea partyist movement, the perpetrator of the attacks was much closer to home, ideologically speaking. Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist, has much more in common with American right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph than he does Osama bin Laden.
Here is Breivik, writing in his 1,500-page manifesto, titled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence”:
If You Don’t Know About ALEC, You Don’t Know What’s Really Going On
Whether you live where “Koch brothers schemes get turned into the bat-$#*@ crazy legislation that just happens to pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, in virtually identical form, in 15 states at once,” you’ll want to know about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. This corporate-funded shadow group is transforming our country, and not in a good way. Watch the video for just one example: privatizing prisons. And remember, although it’s not pointed out in the video, private prisons only want the low-risk, high-profit population. As with health care and Social Security, they want to skim the profitable folks off the top and leave the sickest, the oldest, and, in case of private prisons, the baddest-assed to the government.
Scott’s Law is Likely to Increase Crime in Florida
3,406
Number of Florida non-violent felons who re-offended after their rights were automatically restored under a program instituted by former Gov. Charlie Crist. They represent about 11 percent of the 30,672 people whose rights, including the right to vote, were reinstated. Before Crist launched the initiative, about one-third of prisoners released were back in jail within three years. The results lead criminologists and others to conclude that encouraging offenders to reintegrate into society makes them less likely to commit further crimes. Gov. Rick Scott recently signed Republican-drafted legislation overturning this automatic process, and requiring felons who have served their time to wait five years before applying to have their rights restored.
U.S. Representative Tweets About ‘Islamic Terror’ in Norway
The world is finding out about the man suspected of the worst terror attacks in Norway’s history, in which first a bomb killed at least 30 in Oslo, and then an additional 67 people were gunned down at a nearby youth camp. The suspect is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and it appears he is a rightwing Christian, anti-Muslim extremist who hates Marxists.
He is the very opposite of — as Florida Teapublican U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross tweeted when news broke of the bombing and mass shooting — forces aligned with “Islamic terror.”
It appears Ross wanted to phone in (or in this case, drop a 140-character line) a quick condemnation of the horror and get on with his weekend. His knee-jerk assumption that any act of terror must be perpetuated by Muslim extremists is embarrassing for both his party and his state.
Comments on Facebook, where Progress Florida posted the image of the tweet shown, are not kind to Ross:
- When Rep. Ross departs the mortal coil, the average IQ of Floridians will skyrocket. How does someone with a Fallwell-Robertson understanding of the world get elected?
- Dennis is MY Congessman and I cannot tell you how unhappy I am with him. He used to be a smart moderate until he embraced the tea party.
- Sadly, this kind of crap resonates with a LOT of voters. Never underestimate the combination of stupid + xenophobia x fake patriotism.
- Maybe he can re-tweet: “We stand with you against right-wing ultra-conservative Christians.”
No word on that last idea but we won’t hold our breath waiting for anyone to step up and condemn Christian violence.
The More Like Reagan Republicans Try to Be, the Less Like Reagan They Are
The question is, if Ronald Reagan could compromise, why wouldn’t folks who idolize Ronald Reagan be willing to engage in those same kinds of compromises?
— Pres. Barack Obama, trying to understand why today’s Republicans allow themselves to be bullied by Ronald Reagan protege Grover Norquist, putting their pledge to him above Ronald Reagan himself.
Bachmann’s Campaign Wardrobe Malfunction
O.K., seriously? Michele Bachmann is starting to remind me more of Katherine Harris with each passing day. Could someone please get with her about appropriate attire for campaigning for the office of President of the United States? And before everyone slams me for being sexist…Seriously Michele Bachmann?
Tea Baggers, Come to Somalia
Just in time for vacation planning!
